Coach.
Bill’s coaching career spanned 40 years and four.schools with a record of 490-264. After graduating from Kearney State, he held positions at Odessa, Gibbon and Grant where his Grant team won him his first state championship. In 1967, he settled at Cozad and under his tutelage the Haymakers had a combined record of 313-166 with five trips to the state tourney in Class B and six district runners-up. The 1969-70 season was the most successful, going a perfect 22-0 and gaining the State Championship trophy. Not a one-sport coach, he guided Grant to a Class C track and field championship in 1963-64 and runners-up in 1964 and 1965. His 1977 Haymaker thinclads finished second in the state in Class B in 1977. Among his many honors: Nebraska Coaches Association Mike Heck Award, Nebraska High School Coach of the Year by the Lincoln Journal in 1966 and by the Omaha World-Herald in 1971. He was also a finalist for the National High School Coach of the Year in 1990. He was picked as Grand Marshal for the Cornhusker State Games and is a member of the elite 400 plus win club among high school basketball coaches, a group with less than 10.
